The U.S. Supreme Court has ordered the Obama administration to respond to a petition by the Home School Legal Defense Association to hear an appeal in the Romeikes deportation case.

The Obama administration has sought to deport the Romeikes, a German family that fled from to the United States to protect their right to homeschool. If they had stayed in Germany, they risked fines or having their children taken from them, as recently happened with another homeschooling family in Germany.

A controversial high-profile Christian educator denounced the homeschooling trend of believers withdrawing from the public, and encouraged them instead to pursue excellence and engage the culture in all levels of education.

"When I read that there's been a 3,000 percent increase in homeschooling in America, it tells me that we're stepping out of our educational system," Carlos Campo, an education and leadership consultant, told The Christian Post in an interview this week. Calling for a renewed emphasis on excellence in Christian education, Campo also encourages believers to engage the public schools.

"Frankly, Christian scholarship really has to take the next step up, because at the evangelical schools in this country, scholarship has not been a priority for many years," Campo argued. He cited historian Mark Noll's book The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, a treatise addressing the alleged decline of rigorous thought in evangelical circles. more >>

A prominent "Biblical patriarchy" non-profit group will shut down after its leader admitted to a "lengthy, inappropriate relationship" with a woman on Oct. 30.

Doug Phillips, the former president of Vision Forum, revealed in a blog post last month that while he had not known the woman "in a Biblical sense," the relationship was "nevertheless inappropriately romantic and affectionate."

"I have acted grievously before the Lord, in a destructive manner hypocritical of life messages I hold dear, inappropriate for a leader, abusive of the trust that I was given, and hurtful to family and friends," he wrote in a statement. more >>

Homeschoolers whose children were recently seized by the German government are now not allowed to emigrate to a country that allows homeschooling.

In August, the children of Dirk and Petra Wunderlich were seized at gunpoint by German officials because the Wunderlich's refused to send their children to the public school. In mid-September, the Wunderlichs were reunited with their children, but only after they promised to send their kids to public school.

The Wunderlichs then requested that they be allowed to leave the country so that they could go to a country that will allow them to homeschool. A judge told them that if they left before a December hearing on their case, they would be brought back to Germany and face criminal sanctions. Left with no other option, the Wunderlich children began attending public school on Oct. 28. more >>

In a battleground state where Democrats label religious faith as too extreme, Republican candidate Ken Cuccinelli, known for his strong support of homeschooling, pro-life, and other values voter issues, has tightened the Virginia governor's race, nearly catching up to Democrat Terry McAuliffe and perhaps making the race "too close to call."

The new poll from Quinnipiac University, released Wednesday, found McAuliffe ahead at 45 percent to Cuccinelli's 41 percent, but it also discovered that if Libertarian Party candidate Robert Sarvis were not in the race, McAuliffe would only lead by two points – 47 percent to 45 percent – making the race "too close to call."

Children who are homeschooled have less body fat than children who attend schools outside the home, according to a new study published in the journal Obesity.

"Based on previous research, we went into this study thinking homeschooled children would be heavier and less active than kids attending traditional schools. We found the opposite," Dr. Michelle Cardel, University of Colorado-Denver, one of the study's 11 authors, told University of Colorado-Denver.

The researchers compared homeschooled children, ages 7 to 12, to children in the same age group who attend schools outside the home. They found that the homeschooled children had about the same level of activity as those not homeschooled, and had about the same quantity and quality of meals while at home. more >>